I blogged earlier this week about proponents taking companies to court over decisions to exclude Rule 14a-8 shareholder proposals from the company proxy statement. Two of the three cases have now settled, with the companies agreeing to include the proposal in the proxy.

The NYC Comptroller announced its settlement yesterday – and emphasized that EEO-1 diversity disclosures are still an initiative:

In 2020, the Comptroller’s Office launched the successful Diversity Disclosure Initiative, encouraging America’s largest companies to voluntarily disclose their Consolidated EEO-1 Reports. The results have been overwhelmingly positive. As of 2025, roughly 80% of S&P 100 companies publicly disclose their Consolidated EEO-1 report, a comprehensive breakdown of the company’s workforce by race, ethnicity, and gender, an increase from about 14 in July 2020. The Comptroller’s Office, on behalf of the Funds, have reached agreements with major companies including the Home Depot, McDonald’s Corporation, Netflix, Nike, and Verizon Inc.

The disclosure of a company’s Consolidated EEO-1 Report is a cost-effective and meaningful way to provide investors with consistent information that allows for comparison of one company to that of its peers. Further, this disclosure imposes few if any additional costs on a company because companies like AT&T are already required to annually submit the report to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

As I noted in my earlier blog, one factor to consider in exclusion decisions is whether the company has previously agreed to do the thing the proposal asks for – that appeared to be a factor in the NYC Comptroller case, even though the macro environment has shifted in the meantime. Another factor, apparently, is whether proponents will litigate – and that risk may be elevated now that there are two settlements on the books.

– Liz Dunshee